Alcohol, Not Drugs, Is Our Biggest Problem

I believed as I got older people would stop pressuring me to drink. In my fraternity, I never really fit in until that time I threw up in my residence hall water fountain. In my twenties I was accused of teetotaling while working for alternative-weekly newspapers, some of which had staff meetings in bars. Even recently, after finishing a workout with my running club, I was pressured to drink a watery beer.

Drinking doesn’t do it for me, it just gives me a headache. Some people don’t like that. “Is that your first drink?” they ask. “Is that water?” The implication, I guess, is that if I were a free spirit, willing to really live in the moment, then I’d be swallowing spittoon wine like Paul Giamatti in Sideways.

Allow me a counterpoint: Alcohol is incredibly destructive. Booze kills more Americans than drugs; a lot more. According to a new study from the CDC, over the five year period ending in 2021, the annual number of deaths from excessive alcohol use ballooned by 29 percent, to 178,000.

These are deaths from cancer*, cirrhosis, alcohol poisoning and car crashes, and other causes.

*Meanwhile, another new report links alcohol to six different types of cancer: “head and neck cancer, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and breast, colorectal, liver, and stomach cancers.”

Compare the number of alcohol deaths — 178,000 — to deaths from drug overdoses, which peaked around 108,000 in 2022.

The increase in alcohol deaths was attributed in part to the pandemic, not just owing to mental health issues, but because obtaining liquor got easier.

The rise of home delivery services for alcohol enabled people to avoid stepping outside and possibly getting sick, but also further isolated them, said Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University. Other policy changes, like permitting alcohol to be carried in to-go cups, posed “a risk factor for excessive alcohol use.”

Even with the pandemic in the rearview, these numbers are not expected to fall, according to Siegel, “unless the U.S. takes action in response to the problem,” perhaps raising taxes on alcohol.

And yet is there any appetite for that in a country where you can buy hand towels like this one at the grocery store?

Alcohol and opioids are two of the most addictive substances on earth. And yet, can you imagine substituting the word “heroin” for “wine” in these pictures?

Some countries have more booze deaths per capita, like the former Soviet satellite states, but we’re still quite high on this dubious list.

Why? I can’t say, but I suspect it’s because drinking is hard-wired into our culture.

One can buy booze at kids’ soccer games; on Halloween many adults drink on their lawns while handing out candy; sporting events are associated with booze consumption, as are fraternity parties, bachelor parties, wedding receptions, proms, hirings, firings, happy times, sad times, going out, staying in, St. Patrick’s Day, Mardi Gras, Cinco de Mayo, Bastille Day, New Years Eve, Christmas, and Thanksgiving. Here’s something I just learned from the internet:

The day before Thanksgiving—known as Blackout Wednesday—is the biggest drinking day of the year in many areas of the United States

I recently visited Kirksville, Missouri for some reporting, home of the prestigious Truman State University. A bar there called T.P.’s Office has an all-you-can-drink special, which includes Natural Light beer and well liquors. It costs $12 for the whole night, $15 if you pay with credit card.

Aside from a few fuddy-duddies like myself, no one seems to have a problem with this culture. It’s an American truism that ending prohibition was positive for this country, even as alcohol kills a million people per decade.

I’m not saying bringing back prohibition would be a public health victory, but it might be, and it’s worth at least considering making liquor more difficult to obtain.

Alcoholism, or Alcohol Use Disorder as it is now known, is a terrible disease. But not everyone who drinks too much realizes they have a problem. They probably just think they’re normal, considering the plethora of society-sanctioned opportunities to booze.

I’m now in post-production on my documentary about naltrexone, a wonder drug which is not just used to fight opioid addiction. It’s also an extremely-effective (and very cheap) medication to help people cut down on their drinking.

You don’t even have to quit; just take a naltrexone pill before going out, and instead of having 7-8 drinks you’ll only feel like having 1-2.

Listen, I’m sure some of you out there genuinely enjoy your booze, and it enhances your life. Really, I’m jealous.

Just don’t assume it enhances the lives of others. Take it easy on the peer pressure, and the next time you see me out at the bar, maybe buy me a nice Shirley Temple. It combines the delicious sweetness of soda with the high fructose delight of grenadine. What can I say? It makes me awesome.